Cardinal John J. O'Connor, who was Archbishop of New York in the 1980s and 1990s had a long history of statements and actions offensive to the LGBT community. Among other things, he supported the ban on Irish LGBT groups in the N.Y. St. Patrick's Day Parade and he challenged Mayor Ed Koch's Executive Order 50 which banned sexual orientation discrimination in employment for groups that had contracts with the city. Yet, he was also known to volunteer at a Catholic hospital, tending to patients with HIV/AIDS at a time when many others shunned any physical contact with the syndrome's victims. Read More

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